Tag: women’s studies

Women in Leadership Today and Societal Roadblocks – Part 3

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By Jordan Winberg

The following article is part of a multi-part series of excerpts from the author’s senior thesis. Begin with Part 1. 

 

Low Self Esteem Found in Women

In addition to low levels of assertion, lower self-esteem in women may be harming their ability to perform well and/or be perceived as good leaders.

In 2004, Dove beauty products set out to obtain more information about how women view themselves, and how this can affect their life. The study was conducted by issuing surveys to 10 different countries around the world, and 3,200 women, ages 18-64, completed the survey. Results showed that only 2% of their respondents would use the word “beautiful” to describe themselves, a majority of respondents were not satisfied with their appearance, and a majority of respondents equated physical attractiveness with beauty (Etcoff, Orbach, Scott, & D’Agostino, 2004). These results suggest that a majority of women tend to have low self-esteem regarding their outward body image.

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Women in Leadership Today and Societal Roadblocks – Part 2

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By Jordan Winberg

The following article is part of a multi-part series of excerpts from the author’s senior thesis. Begin with Part 1. 

Assertiveness in Women: Is it Different from Men?

To begin, aggression/assertiveness is commonly thought to effect leadership ability, an idea supported by scientific evidence. Very low levels of assertiveness are associated with the inability to complete tasks and achieve goals, while markedly high levels of assertiveness are associated with negative relationship building (Ames & Flynn, 2007). Therefore, if women are perceived as having low-levels of assertiveness, they will not be received as being effective leaders (Ames & Flynn, 2007).

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Women in Leadership Today and Societal Roadblocks – Part 1

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By Jordan Winberg

The following article is part of a multi-part series of excerpts from the author’s senior thesis.

My research experience was with Professor Jo Ida Hansen in the vocational department of psychology. Professor Hansen was in-between projects during my semester there, so my time was mostly spent entering data from past projects, completing literature reviews, and helping to brainstorm ideas for the coming semester.

During my time there, I completed the STRONG interest inventory, as career assessments are a large part of the vocational department of psychology. My initial results were accidently run as a male, because my name is gender neutral. After the results were re-run as a female, I noticed discrepancies between job recommendations for male Jordan and female Jordan.

Male Jordan was recommended to pursue more leadership opportunities than female Jordan. When I asked why gender was a factor that was considered, it was explained to me that males and females significantly differ in job satisfaction and ability.

However, it is my personal belief that these differences may stem from learned behaviors more so than innate ability, and I think that discouraging females to break away from gender normed job positions is a practice that may be contributing to the deficit of females in leadership positions.

This paper was able to give me some more background information on the subject, and hopefully, it will be of interest to others as well.

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